On a cold November day, the 2019 season came to a victorious end for the University of New Haven football team. Emotions were riding high for the talented group of players wrapping up their collegiate careers but for a large group of UNH players, they had no way of knowing that this could have also been their swan song.
The 2020 season was limited to some spirited practices featuring small groups of UNH players thanks to COVID-19. The opportunity to return was on the table for all the underclassmen on the 2019 roster but just how many of them would or could stick around to charge onto Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium in 2021?
There were 23 Chargers who played in the 27-17 win over Stonehill on Nov. 16, 2019 that are on the current roster including 13 who have already earned undergraduate degrees from New Haven.
Six of the seven starters on either the defensive or offensive lines are graduate students who weren't ready to be added to the list of UNH football alumni just yet.
"I feel like the support here is really great. They definitely make sure you have everything you need and make you feel loved enough to want to come back," said defensive lineman Affiz Din-Gabisi (Somerset, N.J./Franklin) who had four tackles in a 30-14 season-opening win over Franklin Pierce.
New Haven has 27 graduate students on its roster which is the most of any Division II football program this season. No position on the UNH team is dominated more by grad students than the offensive line with starting tackles William Ayers (East Meadow, N.Y./East Meadow) and John Tyrrell (Bronx, N.Y./Iona Prep), starting guard Michael Wilson (Atlantic Highlands, N.J./Middletown South) and starting center Mike Zecchin (Thiells, N.Y./North Rockland) joined by key reserves Michael Cappuccilli (Walkill, N.Y./Wallkill) and Russell Kobierecki (Buffalo, N.Y./Clarence).
"A lot of us have been together so it is helpful knowing each other and being here for a while, you have a guy next to you and you trust him when you are on the field," Zecchin said. "That is a big thing, trusting the guy next to you knowing he will make the play. Having grad transfers and older guys out there is definitely helpful for our communication and our overall play."
Zecchin arrived at New Haven in 2016 while the other five veteran offensive linemen were part of the next recruiting class. Zecchin has played in 31 career games, 23 as the starting center while the six graduate student offensive linemen are closing in on 100 combined career games
"I think we all bought in, we played four years here as undergraduates," Zecchin said. "We had some successful seasons, we won a lot of games and that is what we are pushing for this season, one thing is we haven't won the NE10 championship and that is why we all came back, one of the big reasons why we are all here working hard."
Receiver Brett Huber (Milford, Conn./Foran), defensive lineman Michael Montecalvo (Green Brook, N.J./Watchung Hills Regional) and linebacker Khalim Cisse (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro) are other familiar names among the graduate students who were in the starting lineup against Franklin Pierce. Receiver Paul Cooper (Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park) didn't start but looked like a threat to break big plays on each of his four receptions. A couple of grad students making their UNH debuts made immediate impacts. Quarterback Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) and receiver Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) arrived on campus in July after graduating from Holy Cross and Albany, respectively. They connected for two of Degenhardt's three touchdown passes and could be the latest in a long time of dynamic quarterback-receiver tandems for the Chargers.
Holmes considered being a part of the New Haven program in 2019 before opting to return to Albany to graduate.
"Coach P (Chris Pincince) wanted me when I first went into the portal in 2019 and I told him I was going to go back to Albany to graduate and be a grad student," Holmes said. "When I left, I contacted him and when I went into the portal, he contacted me. I already knew what the place was about, I ended up doing my research on New Haven. They had my masters program [national security], Coach P and the coaching staff wanted me and everything else is history."
The Chargers added players from not only Albany and Holy Cross but other grad students who made their UNH debuts against Franklin Pierce included former UMass receiver Javon Turner (Newark, N.J./Paramus Catholic), former Hartwick tight end Jack Steinman (North Haven, Conn./North Haven) and defensive lineman Jason Dooling (Sunrise, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) who was a Patriot League rival of Degenhardt's at Lehigh.
"I actually just got cleared from injury the week of the game and dudes like Fiz (Din-Gabisi), Josh Jackson (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Carney), and Khalim Cisse (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro) have helped me out a lot, they have been there for me, they have supported me. If I have any questions, a couple of the coaches are in the MBA program with me so they have been helping me out and keeping me on track. Being a college athlete is not for everybody, if you are a college athlete, you are a different kind of person. You know what you are getting into and you have to handle your business. You have to have a 3.0 to stay in grad school so you really have to know your stuff to be a college athlete and go to grad school.
"I hadn't played football in two years and I got out there and this is what I have been doing my whole life, I have been played football in college for four years and I know how to do this so I think experience is a big factor and we have a lot of experience."
The fact that so many of the players decided to stay at New Haven to finish out their college football careers instead of seeking greener pastures wasn't lost on players coming in from other programs.
"The guys who chose to graduate from here and then stay here, it must be a place that they want to stay," Degenhardt said. "Coming from Holy Cross, it is only undergrad, you get your degree and everybody moves on but for guys to go here as undergraduates, graduate and going to graduate school here instead of going to pursue opportunities at different places, it definitely feels like there is something special here where people want to stay."
The National Football Foundation recently posted the list of NCAA football players with undergraduate degrees. The number jumped from 1,452 in 2019 to 3,284 in the current season. With the NCAA granting 2020 fall athletes an extra season of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not a shock that the totals took a major leap although Pincince believes that the number of grad students on his roster would have been close to what they are now even if the pandemic didn't result in the Chargers not playing any games in 2020.
A quick look at the bios for the players pursuing their second degree at UNH will show plenty of Northeast-10 Academic Honor Roll and New Haven Dean's list accolades. The academic track record of the Chargers players in grad school gives the UNH coaches one less thing to worry about.
"It is how they are attacking the day that is impressive, they are up early, they meet early, they eat, they lift, they prepare, they practice, they are here on game day," Pincince said. "They are just mature, older guys and so we don't have to worry about them getting lost going to class, we don't have to worry about them oversleeping, we don't have to worry about all of those things and that is something that hopefully all 27 graduate students bring to us."
Not that the coaching staff needs to check on the status of the players pursuing advanced degrees but it doesn't hurt that graduate assistant coaches are often in grad school classes with the New Haven players. Often times they are scurrying away from the football facility following the afternoon practices and meetings to head out to the evening classes they are enrolled in.
"It is a unique place," Pincince said. "Two of my graduate assistants are sharing classes with some of these guys, my son is a senior here and he has class with some of our guys so we are unique here; we share everything."
More than anything, they want to share the joy of winning New Haven's first NE10 football title since 2012.
"We all came here for the same goal to win a title for Coach P and the rest of us and I think we have a good chance with all the grad students and all the other guys on the team," Holmes said. "We all have the same goal, we are all in the same boat right now and we are looking forward to the rest of the season."
